Well…hello. I was stoopid today and got away with it!!!

Yeah, I after debating with myself and getting some great input from Mary about whether to go to the track or head to Planet Fitness to use their treadmill. You can guess what her recommendation was and which way I was leaning.

After all at 10:00 AM, it was already 86*F with higher humidity and safety, along with being an old fart who knows that running in that shit ain’t too smaht or good for a quality workout.

Today, I wanted to do 12 x .25 at a faster pace and I knew that I would get the workout in if I used the treadmill.

So of course, being the contrary old Bastid that I am, I went to the Cony Track.

It was f*&^ing hot and miserable,

However, I had a plan for my madness. I have been pissing and moaning about the New Balance Beacon 2s feeling slow and I wanted to see if it was the shoes or me. So I had dug out all of my “go faster” shoes and planned to do a warm-up lap, a .25 lap, recovery and another .25 lap to see how each of the shoes performed.

I figured that on this hot and miserable day that I would base the performance more on perceived effort and comfort, than my actual lap time. Which in this kind of heat/humidity I figured that I was going to slow down no matter how much effort I was willing to put into running faster. I also knew that I was going to suffer no matter what shoes I would be wearing, but sometimes suffering answers questions too.

When I got to the Cony Track no one was there, but as I was getting ready to start, the summer track team showed up. I asked the coach if he minded if I ran a workout. He said he didn’t, they were doing field work today. I got to run with some spectators and it probably helped me to run a little better than I would have otherwise. Running when others are watching always seems to help push the pace a little.

The shoes were:

The Zoom Fly SP, were by far the most comfortable shoe to run faster in and even though I was definitely not into running fast by that 6th fast quarter, I was still able to maintain a 1:49 time, which I don’t believe that I could have done in any of the other shoes.

So this experiment answered a couple of questions I had:

1. The Beacon 2s are doing what they are supposed to do and it is the weather that is affecting my pacing more than how I am actually running in the shoes. You were right AJ.

2. For the foreseeable future, the Zoom Fly SP will be my “faster” shoe of choice. For them to be able to allow me to keep up the pace when I was feeling horrible and suffering pretty badly during the last two quarters was impressive. That I was able to run a slower 2.0 mile cool-down non-track run in them at the end of the workout without any issues in fit also was a good thing.

3. While I prefer the fit/feel of the Zoom Fly SP for running faster, I believe that racing in bad weather (rain, light snow, moderate trails or anytime traction might be an issue) that I would definitely choose the RunFasts. I just have confidence in the RunFasts ability to keep my keister moving forward versus landing on it or worse eating tar/dirt.

4. That the Brooks Green Silence while good in their day, their day has past and I should either put them in my trophy shoe box or get rid of them, because I don’t really see me taking them out of retirement to race in and they are not comfortable enough to be my walking shoes. Decisions, but I have a feeling I will squirrel them away with my Mizuno Elixir 7s. Shoes that I love, but don’t really want to run in anymore, but don’t want to get rid of them either.

5. The Adidas Adios 3 – I got these from Sam W and while I haven’t run a lot in them, I have had two other pair of AB3s and while the Adios shoe series were great racing shoes…at this point and time the RunFasts and Zoom Fly SP blow the AB3s out of the water for me. I would even prefer to race in the Beacon 2s before I would reach for the AB3s. The fit is wrong for my feet now and in comparison to the other shoes, felt rather harsh.

So I answered a lot of questions and while I definitely did not enjoy the sufferfest that was this Track Tuesday Workout – it was worth it.

After I got done running I was looking at the Adios 3 and the track coach came over and we talked. He is running Beach to Beacon and plans on running it very fast – sub 35:00, so I wished him luck and will look forward to seeing how he does.

I mentioned that the AB3s were almost new and wondered if he had any runners that needed new shoes. I left the shoes with him and noticed while I was taking my stuff back to the truck, him talking to a runner and the runner trying on the shoes. I saw the runner walking back to his parents car with a pair of Adidas Adios 3s in his hands and him talking to his mother, pointing to the shoes, with a smile on his face.

I smiled myself and felt pretty good getting ready for that hot cool-down run. Paying it forward is a good thing and even makes a crotchety old bastid feel pretty good.